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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Britten: Works for voice & string orchestra
In 2013 it is exactly one hundred years ago that the English genius Benjamin Britten was born. Britten’s brilliant manner of writing for string orchestra, his unique treatment of text, and his rich repertory of musical colours are all abundantly clear from the masterpieces featured on this recording. Besides the excellent soprano Barbara Hannigan, who sparkles in ‘Les Illuminations’, tenor James Gilchrist and hornist Jasper de Waal deliver an impressive contribution to this production with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The orchestra herself indulges in all imaginable techniques, colours and dynamic extremes that Britten releases from his box of tricks for string orchestra. Amsterdam Sinfonietta is an ensemble of 22 gifted musicians from around the world. The group performs without conductor, under the direction of Candida Thompson, artistic director since 2003. The ensemble’s defining feature is the strong involvement and artistic drive of each individual member. The group has gained a reputation for its distinguished performances and innovative programming. Amsterdam Sinfonietta collaborates with renowned artists and performs in major venues around throughout the world. In the last seasons the group toured Europe, China, the US and Australia. “The strings were absolutely beautiful, transients and attacks were sharp, voices were natural, and the totality of the experience was musical and satisfying in every way...Frankly, I can’t imagine recorded music sounding much bette” Audiophile Audition, April 2013 “Hannigan brings a fined-down intensity to the more hushed Rimbaud settings such as 'Being Beauteous', but elsewhere her tone tends to flutter under pressure...Gilchrist, by contrast, sounds at home in the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings...and while his slightly reedy timbre sounds very different to Peter Pears, he brings equally valid insights into this iconic cycle.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2013 *** “wonderfully alert readings by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta” Financial Times, 23rd February 2013 “Hannigan brings to the text the dramatic energy she has to burn in her championship of Ligeti and Boulez, while the conductorless orchestra and soloist (herself sometimes a conductor) sound a natural fit...[in the Serenade] both soloists play their parts quite straight...An enjoyable and carefully balanced CD” Gramophone Magazine, March 2013 “Gilchrist’s Serenade, with Jasper de Waal the stupendous horn soloist, is one of the best things the English tenor has done on disc — Pears-like in its intensity and crystalline diction. The Sinfonietta’s strings have a whale of a time as a band of wannabe Paganinis in the Aria Italiana of the Bridge Variations.” Sunday Times, 3rd March 2013 “Candida Thompson’s Amsterdam Sinfonietta disc is pretty special – vibrant, incisive and colourful...Hannigan’s account of Les Illuminations is strong, her quickfire delivery in Parade a highlight...Gilchrist’s vibrato is strong but totally idiomatic, matched by Jasper der Waal’s bright-toned, very European horn sound.” The Arts Desk, 27th April 2013 | 
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| |  | Britten: My Beloved is MineSong cycles by Benjamin Britten
The greatly sought-after tenor, James Gilchrist, continues his highly acclaimed exploration of British song with his new recording of Benjamin Britten works. His 2010 recording of Leighton Earth, Sweet Earth…(laudes terrae) and Britten Winter Words was called ‘outstandingly accomplished’ by Gramophone. ‘On This Island’ is strikingly fresh and Gilchrist sings these beautiful poems with a graceful insight. Contrasting this opening set, Gilchrist gives a moving and heartfelt performance of Britten’s dark and profound song cycle ‘The Holy Sonnets of John Donne’. My Beloved is Mine ends with what Peter Pears called ‘Britten’s finest piece of vocal music to date’; a psalm-like poem with energetically evolving rhythms and beautiful harmonies. James Gilchrist has appeared with many of the world’s prestigious ensembles and under several leading conductors; he recently performed with Retrospect Ensemble for their recording with Linn Records, J. S. Bach Easter & Ascension Oratorios. James is sought after for operatic roles, ensemble performances and as a respected recitalist. Anna Tilbrook is one of Britain's most exciting pianists, with a considerable reputation in song recitals and chamber music. She made her debut at Wigmore Hall in 1999 and has since become a regular performer at Europe’s major concert halls and festivals. “His immaculate diction – in Italian as well as English – is more than ample compensation for a slight feeling that sometimes the vocal lines are treated with just a little too much respect...But Gilchrist's restraint also proves to be the perfect counterpart to Tilbrook's piano playing, which relishes every bit of the athleticism that Britten built into accompaniments that he wrote to play himself.” The Guardian, 2nd August 2012 **** “Gilchrist is a greatly sensitive interpreter, his tone liquid yet urgent, his diction immaculate and august, his choices admirable.” Sunday Times, 5th August 2012 “Gilchrist, well matched by by Anna Tilbrook's clean-cut playing, offers gentle sensitivity and words that are crystal clear...Well recorded, with a duo that is perfectly matched, this recital has its virtues. Even so, my preference is for a singer with richer vocal resources.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012 “Gilchrist is as agile as his pianist and evidently attuned to the importance of her role...the mystic union of ground-bass piano with confident vocal line in the concluding 'Death, be not proud' set this interpretation of The Holy Sonnets on a footing with that of tenor Peter Pears and Britten...It's in the most introspective moments...the simple-seeming 'Nocturne' in On This Island, for instance...that Gilchrist's unique artistry is heard to best advantage.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ***** “everything about it emanates thoughtfulness, intelligence and good design...His enunciation is superb throughout...[The Holy Sonnets] are given robust performances. These are full of passion and commitment, and are superbly communicated.” MusicWeb International, January 2013 | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn & strings
Celebrated tenor Mark Padmore joins the Britten Sinfonia in some of the most beautiful English music for voice and orchestra. The centrepiece is Britten's magical evocation of twilight and nightfall, the 'Serenade' (with Stephen Bell, horn). In Gerald Finzi's war-time cycle 'Dies natalis', the ecstatic mood reflects a child's wide-eyed wonder at the world. Britten's poignant 'Nocturne' completes the programme. “so tender and piercing that you really do seem to be listening to these song cycles anew...Padmore’s tenor audibly sports some family resemblances [to Pears], though he’s less precious than Pears, with a conversational ease when singing pianissimo never mastered by Britten’s love and muse. These are intensely sensitive and poetic readings, strengthened further by Stephen Bell’s clean and lyrical horn” The Times, 4th May 2012 ***** “Padmore proves to be a more convincing interpreter of Finzi than he is of Britten...there remains something rather neutral and restrained about his approach at moments when the music would really benefit from a firmer grip. In Dies Natalis, though, he shows that grip – it's a wonderfully muscular performance, beautifully judged and shaded, set off by suitably rapturous string playing.” The Guardian, 3rd May 2012 *** “It was high time Mark Padmore, one of our most thoughtful tenors, set down his interpretation of the “Serenade” – softer-grained than we might have expected from a singer of such probing spirit and dramatic antennae, and softer-edged than the orchestral accompaniment from the Britten Sinfonia, whose horn player, Stephen Bell, proves a robust soloist.” Financial Times, 12th May 2012 *** “the sense of the poems across with extra immediacy, as if Padmore has read the texts many times over before fitting them to the music. There is much beauty - not perhaps in the purely vocal sense...but in the marriage of words and music...Highly recommended.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012 “[Padmore's] not found wanting in the “Nocturne for tenor, seven obbligato instruments & strings”, in which he ably negotiates Shelley's reverie, Wordsworth's melodrama and Tennyson's “thunders of the upper deep”; the “Serenade for tenor, horn & strings” is equally impressive...“Dies Natalis”, however, offers too stark a contrast to the otherwise elegaic tone.” The Independent, 19th May 2012 “The performance of Nocturne is the highpoint: a wide-eyed, variegated account from singer, obbligato instrumentalists and orchestra alike.” classicalsource.com “Apart from the sheer beauty of his timbre, Padmore and his sympathetic accompanists have the full measure of Britten’s genius, and the readings are unlikely to be bettered for years to come.” Cd Choice “Padmore's singing is very loving indeed, but in places I can't help feeling that it's a case of 'less is more'. The Britten Sinfonia and instrumental soloists are admirably attuned to Padmore's approach...Padmore is more successful in the exquisite Dies Natalis, where a more extrovert approach really pays off.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ***/**** “Deeply intense, questing performance of two of Britten's great orchestral song-cycles, matched by the players with whom Padmore has rehearsed, workshopped and toured these works extensively. The Finzi is much more than just a filler...this is the masterly performance is deserves.” Classical Music, 5th May 2012 **** “Padmore’s new recording is terrific - his voice is expressive, beautiful and terrifying by turns...Bell’s performance is spectacular...Padmore sings with such sweetness that you’ll convince yourself that Finzi was an underrated genius.” The Arts Desk, 16th June 2012 “Peerless tenor extends the Peter Pears legacy into a new century.” New Zealand Herald, August 2012 “He sings with less of the honeyed beauty that he is famous for and more incisive bite, which works for some songs, such as the Dirge, but not so well for others, such as the opening Pastoral. However, this does have the advantage of lending his word-painting that extra edge...Both playing and singing are at their most alluring in the concluding Keats Sonnet, seductive and beautiful with a hint of danger, leading wonderfully into the softly dying horn epilogue.” MusicWeb International, August 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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For his first LSO Live recording, Gianandrea Noseda is joined by three of today’s most widely acclaimed singers for a magnificent performance of Benjamin Britten’s choral masterpiece. Premiered 50 years ago on 30 May 1962, the 'War Requiem' was commissioned for the re-dedication of Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed by bombing raids during the Second World War. Using the Latin mass of the dead, interspersed with texts by war poet Wilfred Owen, Britten, a pacifist and conscientious objector, created a work that both mourned the dead and pleaded the futility of war. The 'War Requiem' was to become one of the defining choral works of the 20th Century. Gianandrea Noseda was the first foreign Principal Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and over the past decade his reputation in the opera house and concert hall has blossomed. He regularly conducts the LSO, as well as many of the world’s other great orchestras, and is Music Director of the Teatro Regio in Turin. Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside and Sabina Cvilak perform regularly in the world’s leading opera houses and are renowned for their performances in Britten’s music. The LSO and LSC have both enjoyed long relationships with the composer and appeared on the first recording of the 'War Requiem', conducted by Britten himself. 'Noseda’s unashamedly dramatic interpretation held the audience transfixed. It was all so vivid … an overwhelming evocation of the grief, the waste and the pity of war’ The Times (UK) High resolution recording, live at the Barbican in October 2011 Stereo and multi-channel 5.0 Total playing time 83m 46s ‘Noseda marshalled the finest War Requiem that I have heard' The New Yorker (USA) “Noseda proves a more than worthy substitute [for Colin Davis], easily encompassing the dramatic scale of the work...Sabina Cvilak has a bright, silvery penetrating timbre. Ian Bostridge’s tenor is as individual and idiosyncractic as Pears’s in its own way. Simon Keenlyside, too, is magnificent, while the two choirs relish their grateful, inspiring music.” Sunday Times, 15th April 2012 “The LSO and its Chorus are on cracking form, and the soloists are as good as you will get…No one should be without the composer’s recording, also with the LSO, but half a century later, Noseda’s Dramatic, pulsating account represents another landmark.” Financial Times, 28th April 2012 “Noseda offers an account rich in drama...forging a sense of momentum and cohesion..Few singers deliver text with as much conviction and engagement as Bostridge, who finds the right tone for the bitterness of war...[Keenlyside] sounds every inch the soldier, conveying the pain of war and a bleak sense of loss...Cvilak is very good, particularly fine in floating her high notes in the 'Lacrimosa'..this performance is incredibly moving” International Record Review, May 2012 “the two-CD set certainly captures the thrill of the moment in a reading notable both for its hushed intensity and dramatic sweep. Noseda’s an Italian, after all, and the clamorous Dies irae and supercharged choral prayers wouldn’t disgrace a Verdi opera...The LSO and the London Symphony Chorus are the performance’s rock: they start on top form and stay that way. Another essential recording, with or without the Britten centenary.” The Times, 4th May 2012 **** “[Noseda] brings a strong sense of Italianate lyricism to bear on the score, reminding us of Britten's conscious debt to Verdi's Requiem. The choral singing is fervent and intense, the playing fierce and sensitive by turns. Sabina Cvilak is the thrilling, hieratic soprano, though her male counterparts” The Guardian, 10th May 2012 **** “[Noseda] delivers it afresh as a scintillating achievement...Sabina Cvilak's soprano has the focus, though not always the required gravitas, while tenor Ian Bostridge brings a piercing sincerity to all his solos...Keenlyside takes a different approach: sonorous, commanding, but sometimes lacking the necessary bitter edge...Nevertheless, this is an important issue: Noseda's judgement of pace is unerring, and the orchestra and chorus simply superb.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 **** “Noseda conducts the most blazing War Requiem I have heard in any circumstances...The LSO’s brass section rips into the score’s martial elements with full-blooded ferocity...This is a searing recording, a match for the very best and more powerful than any other version I know in communicating Britten’s anti-war agenda. Fifty years on, here is a War Requiem for our own troubled times.” classicalsource.com, 31st May 2012 “In some ways this is the most affecting and emotionally draining reading the work has ever received — and that includes the premiere recording by Britten itself, which established a high benchmark for many years. This is a considerable achievement.” CD Choice “Noseda's live performance seeks to take the audience on a journey from the edge of consciousness to the blazing fires of the battlefield...Bostridge spins a beautiful line in the tenor's lyrical passages...Keenlyside is excellent throughout...Decisive and confident, the soprano Sabina Cvilak has the Slavic edge to her voice that has seemed hard-wired into the part since the incomparable Vishnevskaya” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012 “the LSO Live account has great clarity and tonal sophistication. The Eltham choir is crisp and well balanced...The LSO certainly play well and the brass in the Dies irae are especially thrilling...All else pales next to Bostridge’s deeply moving, extraordinarily nuanced singing in Futility...The LSO chorus deserve a mention in dispatches. Their quiet singing in Pie Jesu is ineffably beautiful.” MusicWeb International, July 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No. 2
This CD presents music composed by Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich, two striking personalities from recent 20th-century musical history, who were also united by an intimate friendship. They both also shared reciprocal friendship with the inspiring and energetic Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premier of both the three Suites for cello by Britten solo and the Second Cello Concerto in G by Shostakovich. Pieter Wispelwey recorded Shostakovich with the Sinfonietta Cracovia which ranks among the leading Polish and European orchestras. The exceptional atmosphere of their concerts, the enthusiastic reception by the audiences, glowing reviews and, first of all, the quality of stage performances are to confirm the sustainable development of the still young ensemble. Wispelwey needs no further explanation. In 1990 his first recording with Channel Classics, the Bach Cello Suites, was released to great acclaim and in 1992 he was the first cellist ever to receive the Netherlands Music Prize, which is endowed upon the most promising young musician in the Netherlands; thus his path was secured to the busy and varied career he has today. Recently the latest release of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with Budapest Festival Orchestra gave him, Channel Classics and Ivan Fischer and his BFO great reviews. “Whereas Müller-Schott and Kreizberg view the Concerto as a darkly contemplative monologue that is almost suffocating in its brooding introspection, Wispelwey manages to find more light and shade and greater emotional contrast in the solo part.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 ***** “Wispelwey catches the grave beauty of Shostakovich's opening Largo, with phrasing that is highly inflected but never to the point of self-conscious indulgence. Add to this an altogether exceptional sense of creative dialogue between soloist and orchestra and you have a performance that richly repays repeated hearings... Wispelwey brings a similar blend of colouristic and poetic imagination to bear on Britten's uncompromising Suite, making it a real journey of exploration.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Gramophone Awards 2012
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2009